E-vine
December 2010
In this issue: Sugar Daddy loses 8.5 bottles of wine, 2011 trends, Last minute gifts, Keith Floyd, Chips and Lazza, Woks, Star drinking, other stuff
A Christmas thought
Time... passes much more slowly with relatives.
A theory of relativity. in the novel, The Road to Mars, Eric Idle, Boxtree, 1999.
Season’s greetings
That’s it for the year kind readers. E-vine wishes one and all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. We’ll see you again in January.
Sugar, Daddy?
Late September, I was feeling poorly and went to see the Doc. After endless tests he said, “We don’t know what you’ve got. It’s probably viral. Maybe it’ll go away.” (It did.)
He added scientific words to the effect of, “You’re no spring chicken though, and you do have slightly elevated blood sugar levels. If you don’t lift your game, in a few years you could become part of Australia’s Type 2 Diabetes epidemic.”
He didn’t recommend a specific diet, merely suggested that I check out Diabetes Australia, lose weight, and avoid sugary stuff and carbohydrate-rich food. “Oh,” he went on, “You should also cut down on the booze intake and exercise regularly.” A sobering thought.
So I took his advice.
Since then, I’ve lost just on 10.5 kilos. That’s the equivalent of not lugging around some eight and a half bottles full of wine 24 hours a day.
Basically, I eat much the same food as before but less of it. I drink about a third less wine than I did. I’ve totally cut out sweet stuff, including, sadly, muscat, port, and botrytised whites.
Everybody asks me if I feel any better for it. Nah. I can only hope it’s doing me good.
PS. I actually have had to tighten my belt and the old daks keep falling down.
Predictions for 2011
Wine
For what it’s worth, I reckon that in 2011, Australian wine drinkers will get over their flirtation with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
My crystal decanter tells me that the trend will be towards stylish dry rosés, pinot gris, medium priced bubblies and pinot noir.
Tucker
On a lighter note, the food tosspot ‘Gosh!’ reaction to novelties such as liquid nitrogen cuisine, faux froth and bubbles, and skid-marks of garishly tinted gel on plates, will wear off rapidly.
They will instead adopt “Nuclear Cuisine”. This will involve eating irradiated, fluorescing delicacies that glow on plates in darkened, ultra-violet lit dining rooms.
New taste sensations will include genetically modified flesh from hybridised chimeras.
Look out for the Squeep: a ten-legged sheep/squid cross that will prove most popular on surf ‘n turf menus. Not to mention the Beefdaloo: a breed of pre-curried cattle whose genes have been spliced with genetic material from various curry spice varieties.
Commercial in confidence restrictions prevent me revealing more but let me just say, gastronoughts are in for a very exciting 2011.
Last minute gifts
It’s inevitable that you’ll be looking for a last minute gifts this week – here are a couple worth considering:
Plumm Wine Glasses. A couple of these machine-made crystal glasses arrived in the mail and I’ve given them a good try out with red and white wines.
The “Vintage REDa” is a tall, tulip shaped, fine rimmed glass recommended for full-bodied reds. The “REDb” – is for medium bodied reds: tulip shaped but with a re-curved rim.
To be honest, I couldn’t detect any taste or bouquet difference when using either of them but the drinking experience was equally enjoyable.
These are large glasses, each capable of holding (if really thirsty) close to a bottle of wine (not recommended). Here’s the good bit – they’re dishwasher safe. The range is sold in four-packs, for $120.
Wine Guide
Then there’s the ever reliable annual, James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2011. Halliday packs a wealth of Australian wine information into his guide, plus tasting notes for nearly 4000 currently available Australian wines. $35. Hardie Grant,
paperback.
Watching Keith Floyd
Over the last few weeks 7two has been running – at 6 p.m. weekdays - a series of food shows by the late Keith Floyd – Floyd on France, Floyd’s American Pie and Floyd’s India.
The earlier shows are gems of pure entertainment: vigorous, sometimes slapdash, unpretentious, often spontaneous, witty, and informative. All episodes are well lubricated, both in recipes or in Floyd’s gullet, with lashings of good wine.
Though some episodes were made over 20 years ago, they make many of the current crop of TV celebrity “chefs” look like contrived, over-produced, self-indulgent amateurs.
Noshtalgia
Chips Rafferty meets Laurence Olivier
A column I wrote for The Melbourne Times, 12 July 1989:
I've just read a description of a dinner held at Emu Plains, New South Wales in 1948. (The Gourmet’s Week-End Book, edited by André Simon, Seeley Service, London 1952).
Among the wines served were an 1893 Great Western Hermitage, a 1920 White Hermitage from Dame Nellie Melba's Coldstream vineyard, a 1932 Coonawarra Hermitage, a 1934 Hunter River Hermitage, a 1944 Drayton's Hunter River Semillon and a 1940 Leonay Liqueur Brandy.
The 1893 Great Western red, says the report, "had retained a beautiful ruby colour, and was a remarkable wine despite its 55 years."
Courses comprised Oysters a la Leonay, fresh oysters on the shell with halved avocados containing cocktail sauce. Then a six-pound snapper marinated in champagne; baked with onions, tomatoes and herbs and basted with butter and champagne. Followed by lamb chops barbecued over wood coals and green eucalyptus leaves, accompanied by potatoes roasted in ashes and green peas.
Sweets were strawberries flambées and ice cream. Coffee was served after Mazcola (an Australian gorgonzola style) cheese. Yum.
I imagine overhearing a snippet of cross-cultural conversation when they met:
Chips: "G'day Lazza."
Olivier: "I'm afraid you have the advantage of me, my good man."
Chips: "Well ain't we posh? Chips is the moniker, meet the missus. An' oo’s the good lookin' sheila yez brung along? Would she be tonguin' for a cold ale before we repair to the backyard barbie? Waddaya reckon, Lazza?"
Vivien: "How very quaint these Orstralians are Larry."
Chips: "Jeez, cut the cackle and save me some of the plonk for when the real grog runs out, or I'll see yez in hell!" etc.
Wish I'd been there.
A word on woks
We cook a lot of Chinese tucker and once had a well-seasoned iron wok for the frying bits. Then for some reason, we replaced that with one of those expensive, heavy, flat-bottomed, new-fangled, non-stick numbers with a glass lid. It was sort of adequate but never quite had the sizzle of a traditional wok.
Recently we lashed out - $30 - and bought a replacement iron wok at the local Asian grocery. We couldn’t be more pleased with it. It heats up to smoking point in about 30 seconds and flash-sears ingredients at just short of light speed – as a good hot wok should.
We’ve kept the Teflon thing for risottos and slow-cooked stuff.
Note: As Confucius once said: “Never add oil to a cold wok.”
pHeedback
‘Hi Martin, a very good E-vine! Really enjoyed going through it, even the so called second pressings. Best regards, David.’
Overrated Gourmet Tucker
Well, a few correspondents agreed with my heretical and slightly tongue in cheek list:
‘Dear Martin, Your Emperor’s Nouvelle Cuisine is fascinating. Whilst on the subject of foaming, (which is generally what I am doing when I am confronted with this nonsense, and another whiff of nitrogen will send me into a mad hatter’s rage) it seems to me that most of these foams need a good dose of Viagra or steroids to “keep ‘em up”.
‘Blobs of exhausted bubbles mostly, that were never meant for restaurant service but for outlandishly styled, ridiculous Spanish magazine covers or inserts.
‘Please maintain the rage and let us be rid of this craziness!
‘In the 10 times I have been to Spain, I have never eaten this nonsense stuff being espoused in the various glossy mags I pick up in dentists or doctors reception areas. Most great Spanish food was generated in the mid last millennium and earlier, which means it is fair dinkum, legitimate peasant fare, reflecting its region and seasonal availability. What real food is about. Regards, Peter Howard.’
‘Dear Martin, I’ve been on the floor pissing myself laughing at the food comments. Honky.’
However, one infuriated foodie wrote, ‘As for your ruminations food wise they suck.’
Cultural cringe
‘Hi Martin, I'm always delighted to get e-vine. Yes, the real issue is currency rather than production costs. I don't drink much foreign stuff except for some cheap NZ Sauvignon Blancs.
‘BTW I also enjoy a cider. Mercury from Tasmania is just fine but Bulmer's Pear Cider (Perry) is an interesting brew that caught my daughter's attention. Cheers Ern Horgan.’
‘Martin, I do enjoy a Caldirola or Donna Simona Frascati, and it's only $8 a bottle (regardless of exchange rate fluctuations, it seems). I don't know any Aussie wine that's anything much like it. That's cultural cringe for you! John.’
Star drinking
Pale gold, small bead. Nose of dried apples and pears. Soft and full in the mouth with a hint of lemon acidity. Will please people who don’t enjoy bone dry bubbly.
Barrel fermented sauvignon blanc. In this wine, barrel-fermentation has softened much of the herbaceous pungency we expect in unwooded versions. Nevertheless there is still a hint of edgy tomato leaf over the faint woody overtones on the nose. The palate is full and rich and interwoven with sherbet-like acidity.
d’Arenberg McLaren Vale The Dry Dam Riesling 2010 - $15 - Ripe lemon, new season pear and some floral notes on the nose. A generous mouth filling style permeated with lemon and lime intensity. There is a hint of apple pie at the finish. Good aperitif or entrée wine.
South Burnett, Queensland. A blend of semillon, verdelho and sauvignon blanc. Pale straw hues. Attractive tropical fruit salad nose. Clean and dry in the mouth with a fine edge of citric tang at the finish.
Edenvale Shiraz - Alcohol removed - around $7 - Less than .5 % alcohol, If you’re off the booze this might serve as an alternative. Mid ruby in colour. Sweet plums on the nose. Slightly sweet in the mouth. Light tannic texture underlines Ribena-like aspects.
Invivo Central Otago Pinot Noir 2009 - $32 - The colour is light crimson with cherry skin hues. The nose shows strawberry conserve along with savoury smokiness and pencil shavings. Savoury character continues on the palate with aspects of maraschino cherry and strawberry tart. It finishes dry.
Dark red. Ripe plummy nose. A robust style with stacks of fruit over a sub-structure of integrated tannins. Just right for main course dishes. Unquestionable value for money.
Margaret River, Western Australia. Cedar chest and blueberries on the nose. The soft yet lengthy palate is reminiscent of tobacco leaf and black currant liqueur. Tight, lip smacking, tannic astringency supports the whole.
Ratings
- outstanding
- classy
- first-rate
- good stuff
- commercial
Second pressings
About E-vine
E-vine first appeared in 2001 and is edited and published and written every now and then (mostly then) by wine educator and freelance wine and food writer, Martin Field. You are receiving E-vine because you requested it or because you sent unsolicited email or due to sheer good luck. Infrequent typos in the text are deliberate and are designed to foil net censors